Big News in Citizen ID, Retail Payments, and Airport Biometrics: This Week’s Top Stories

With business activity having ramped up for the beginning of autumn, this week brought some pretty big news for the biometrics industry. Naturally, a few of these developments found their way into the latest roundup of FindBiometrics’ top stories, along with some recognition for an industry leader, and the final feature for the Digital Transformation in the Enterprise Special Event.

First, some big news in civil ID: Officials in the Australian government announced a huge COVID-19 recovery package this week that includes a digital identity system as a major component. The Commonwealth Digital Identity system will be based on facial recognition:

Australia’s COVID-19 Response Includes Face-based Digital Identity System

Then there was Amazon’s big announcement for the payments sector – not to mention access control. After much speculation, the company finally revealed its contactless palm scanning POS terminal, which will allow customers to link their payment accounts directly to their palm biometrics. And Amazon isn’t just targeting the retail sector with this one…

Amazon Unveils Naked Payments Terminal, with Biometric Access Ambitions

Meanwhile, in the airport biometrics sector, NEC revealed some details this week about its joint partnership with SITA aimed at streamlining the passenger journey in the wake of COVID-19. The partnership will combine NEC’s I-Delight and NeoFace solutions with SITA’s Smart Path and Flex platforms:

NEC and SITA Work to Bring Mobile Screening Tech to International Airports

Readers also showed a lot of interest this week in the news that Husayn Kassai has been named the 2020 Young Entrepreneur of the Year for Long and the East of England, as part of the Great British Entrepreneur Awards. Kassai is the CEO of Onfido, one of the biggest names in selfie-based biometric onboarding and authentication:

Onfido CEO Named as London’s Young Entrepreneur of the Year

Finally, our roundup of in-depth features about Digital Transformation in the Enterprise – a weeks-long Special event at FindBiometrics that will culminate in an expert panel next week in collaboration with ISC West – also proved popular among readers:

Digital Transformation in the Enterprise: The Roundup

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Stay posted to FindBiometrics next week as we continue to bring you the latest news and interviews from the exciting world of biometrics. To see the hottest stories of the week in mobile digital identity, visit our sibling site Mobile ID World.

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October 3, 2020 – by Alex Perala